My LosCon Schedule

Just a reminder that it’s not too late for you to spend your Thanksgiving weekend with me at LosCon, Los Angeles’ foremost science fiction convention, at which I am guest of honor this year. Hey, I’m more exciting than all that leftover turkey you’ll have.

For those of you who are coming, here is my schedule of panels and stuff, taken mostly from the descriptions sent along to me:

Friday 11/28, 12:00pm OPENING CEREMONIES
The Official Opening & Welcoming to the convention. Come and hope for surprises.

Friday, 12:30pm PARODY, PASTICHE, AND HUMOR
There’s a time and place for everything. Or is there? Does humor have a place in modern fiction? Can there ever be too much?
Friday, 4:15pm BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE FILMED
Everyone talks about what has been filmed. Here is a discussion of works that haven’t been filmed but should be. What should you look for to make a good film? What won’t translate from the printed word to the visual media? Why haven’t these works been made?
Saturday 11/29, 1:45pm STYLE VS. SUBSTANCE
Is science fiction becoming too concerned about literary style at the expense of storytelling?

Saturday, 3:00pm FILMS 2008
Not for the squeamish. That describes a number of the science fiction and fantasy films that have come out this year. It also describes the reviews a number of films have received. Come hear our experts’ opinions and see how they differ from yours.

Saturday, 4:15pm Guest of Honor John ScalziLoscon‘s Writer Guest of Honor John Scalzi hops onto the stage for a free-wheeling Q&A session about everything and (most) anything, from his Hugo-nominated works of science fiction to his having been an in-house writer for AOLand, perhaps, even about taping bacon to a cat.

Saturday, 5:30pm (ish) SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME WITH WIL AND SCALZI
Wil Wheaton and I take to the stage and do… what? Hell if we know. We’re making this up as we go along. But we might take audience questions and suggestions.

Sunday 11/30, 12:30pm RELIGION IN SF BOOKS & MOVIES
Religion is frequently ignored in science fiction and fantasy. But sometimes it isn’t. How is it treated? Do we see standard Earth religions or all-new ones? Or ones that just think they’re all new? Some authors seem to think that, come the future, all people will just abandon their religious beliefs. Does that seem likely?

See? That’s a jam-packed schedule of wackiness. And naturally when I’m not on panels, I’ll generally be hanging about, so feel free to come up and say hello and stuff. And when you’re sick of me, there’s tons of other stuff to do, too. You can’t beat that.

I would give a flat “no” to this question without a moment’s hesitation. I mean, what year is this? As far as I can tell, the SF field isn’t even close to a peak in the cycle as far as its regular flirtations with “being all literary-like” goes.
There are plenty of examples of storytelling-focused trad-SF out there on the shelves, in spite of the publishing situation being less than healthy. In terms of the availability of something being out there for almost all tastes in SF, things are actually pretty good, the sad state of the midlist notwithstanding.
Are there seriously people worried that the fancy-pants stuff is actually going to crowd out what they see as “true” SF? Really?
The above question is only ever asked by people nursing some silly-ass grudge over the New Wave wars a ridiculous number of years later.

EdKed, as a counterpoint I’d say a tentative “yes”. Fortunately though the literary stylised stuff is too embarrassed to be associated with our SF ghetto and isn’t labled SF. The Road is a good recent example of SF that isn’t labelled SF.

Shane: No. Not only is the stuff published outside the field* irrelevant to the question** , but the implication that the “fancy” stuff somehow poses some kind of _threat_ to the traditional forms of narrative that many fans are devoted to is based on assumptions that are just plain silly.

For those attending that would like a special badge ribbon related to special feline of Scalzi’s, try to catch me at the Arizona fan table, when I’m on a panel or during the Discworld or FiestaCon parties in room 1712. I think there may be other ribbons with some connection, but mine is the only officially sanctioned ribbon by a certain fan club…